You are cordially invited to attend David Furlow's seminar on Iron Age Swordmaking, Saturday, October 20, 2007. Mr. Furlow appeared as a 'talking head' on the History Channel's presentation of "Warrior Queen Boudicca." He recently gave this talk to the Houston Area Blacksmith Association, and has agreed to come to Austin for an encore presentation. The talk focuses on the most recent archaeological news about Late Iron Age British swords, Boudicca's rebellion, and the Kelvedon Warrior Burial.

The presentation will include slides from the Kelvedon excavations, from the British Museum, and from several Scottish museums. He will also share details about the construction of an Iron Age iron sword, the woven fabric that cloaked it, the bronze scabbard that protected it, a spearhead, a shield umbo, a tankard, and other metal gear. The Kelvedon Warrior Grave images include some super-detailed microscopic photographs of the sword's composition, and the two principal ways of making Iron Age swords: edge-to-edge layering and surface-to-surface banding. Through the Kelvedon artifact images, Mr. Furlow will retell the story of Boudicca's rebellion against Rome in 60/61 A.D., using stills from the recent History Channel and PBS documentaries about the rebellion, and some good maps that show the principal events of the rebellion.

He will also show re-enactors engaging in Iron Age smithing of swords, spears, shield-bosses (umbos) and tankards, and related forms of metallurgy, e.g., the smithing of a bronze scabbard and the crafting of the golden torcs (neck-rings) worn by Boudicca and other members of her Iceni tribe of Late Iron Age/Early Roman Empire Britain. You should enjoy seeing the images of Iron Age chariots, swords, spears, etc. in the ground and cleaned, and then how they would have appeared in the "real life" of the Late Iron Age world, i.e., village life, rolling through Britain in a chariot, and in battle.